Annual UMSN Research Day Explores “Learning on the Edge of Discovery”

Nursing science is the focus as faculty, students, and alumni engage with practice and community partners.

"Nursing and Population Health: Opportunities and Challenges for the 21^st Century” was the focus of Dr. Brush’s talk. "Most health conditions plaguing the world have more to do with care than cure," she said, characterizing population health as a quest for “causes of causes” related to health outcomes in groups. She called for policies and actions that would create a paradigm shift away from a culture of sickness to a culture of health. As for producing dynamic changes and overcoming avoidable inequities, “that’s what nursing students will do,” she said.  

A half-dozen presentations took the theme of population health into specific contexts and groups, including global health and data-driven policy, virtual training methods, partnerships in communities, and mental health—especially in military families. The range of topics extended further in the 30 posters on display, detailing findings in studies and initiatives around health promotion, midwifery, treating chronic illnesses, occupational health, and more. Posters represented work by students, faculty and interdisciplinary partners.

Co-chairs for this year's event were faculty members Ellen Lavoie Smith, PhD, APRN, AOCN, and Deleise S. Wilson, PhD. UMSN Dean Kathleen Potempa was in attendance from start to finish of the five-hour event, which she first created in 2009 for nurse scientists to share the impact of their research, while hearing new perspectives and forging collaborative partnerships. “I really like the use of the Learning on the Edge of Discovery as the day’s theme,” she said after the presentations had concluded. That concept, and how it integrates UMSN’s pillars, of education, research, and practice, is also explored in a recent video produced at the school.

Poster awards

For the first year, Dean’s Research Day was the venue for Honors Students to display posters based on their research projects. Awards in all categories were as follows:

Honors Students Awards

• Describing the incidence, patterns, and severity of vincristine induced peripheral neuropathy in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Karin Thomas, BSN Honors Student; Ellen L. Smith, PhD, APN-BC, AOCNA; Lang Li, PhD; Raymond J. Hutchinson, MD; Elizabeth Wells, MD; Richard Ho, MD; William B. Burnette, MD; Patricia L. Robertson, MD; Celia Bridges, BA, BSN, RN; James P. Kelly, BS Student; Robert Knoerl, BSN Honors Student, Hillman Scholar; ChenWei Chiang, BS Student; Jamie Renbarger, MD, MS

2^nd place

• Behavioral sleep hygiene interventions to reduce traumatic stress symptoms in adolescents with PTSD: An integrative review, Kristen Choi, BSN Honors Student, Hillman Scholar; Michelle Pardee, DNP, FNP-BC; Julia Seng, PhD, CNM, FAAN

3^rd place

• Development of an academic state health department alliance to address the information needs of prostate cancer survivors and their partners in the State of Michigan, Jennifer Ragnoni, BSN Honors Student; Ann Schafenacker, RN, MSN, FNP; Carol Garlinghouse, MSN, RN; Laurel Northouse, PhD, RN

Faculty Awards

• Women, work and weight: Associations between occupation and being overweight in Peruvian women, Megan Eagle, RN, MSN, MPH

2^nd place (tie)

• Sleep patterns and inflammatory response following cardio-pulmonary bypass (CPB), Jesus M. Casida, PhD, RN, APN-C; Jean E. Davis, PhD, RN

2^nd place (tie)

• Looking into the future: Gender and developmental differences in possible selves, Sarah A. Stoddard, PhD, CPNP; Jennifer Pierce, MS, Carissa Schmidt, BS

Students’ Choice Award

• The role of orexins in hypothalamic-mediated analgesia in neuropathic pain, Jacob Wardach, BSN Honors Student; Janean Holden, PhD, RN